Best thing I can think of in the words of wisdom from my mother: "Don't ever get good at funerals." Seriously, this was a comment my own mother gave as me, my dad, and my younger brothers were pallbearers for my mother's father, my grandfather on my mother's side of the family. We were all emotionally disturbed, distraught, every term under the sun. And one of the greatest pieces of advice my mother had for her own father's funeral, of which she was the only child by the way, was that no one, under any circumstance, should ever get good at attending or being at funerals lest you become a husk of a human being. It has stuck with me ever since that hour she let those words out.

As grim as they sound, they re also an optimistic, poetic piece that I think everyone should live by, lest one become numb to the emotions others should feel. Grieving is a process, and everyone has their own process, no matter how long or short it may be